The Land Transportation Office has recently released a new batch of license plates to motor vehicles and motorcycles last May. The agency also announced that all vehicles will carry out these new plates by the year 2016. What makes these plates different, however, is its design and the technology applied to it. These plates which will replace the nine different plate designs that have been used since 1981 have been manufacture by Dutch-Filipino consortium PPI-JKG Philippines, Inc.

SECURED PLATES – Samples of the new license plates(Michael Varcas:mb.com.ph)

These simplified, sleek and modern plates boast laser-etched bar code that contains data about the vehicle’s engine or chassis numbers, model or type. Moreover, there have been modern security changes which includes anodized bolts which, the LTO claims, to be tamper-proof and won’t be detached without damaging the bolts and the plates. The plates will also have a reflective sheeting material that enhance wide-angled visibility and can be seen up to a 100-meter distance. The agency will also release “third-plate” stickers with the vehicles’ plate number for the windshields that leave a mark when torn off.

People will also have to say goodbye to the old design of the plates: the blue/white/green or blue/yellow/green gradient with the picture of Rizal’s monument as a background and the bylines- “Matatag na Republika”, “Pilipinas” or “Perlas ng Silangan”. Instead there will be a color change, with two solid colors as the design on which private vehicles will have black on white, public ones will retain the black on yellow; government-owned motor vehicles and motorcycles will have the same red-on-white plates while diplomatic plates deploy the blue-on-white design. Added unto that, protocol plates will use the green-on-white design previously assigned to private motor vehicles and motorcycles while other exempt vehicles will use black-on-blue hue. These, according to LTO, will help people recognize the vehicle ownership. Also, PUV’s plate will indicate region and PUB’s will indicate whether it is a provincial or a city bus with their third-plate stickers indicate their routes.

Although some drivers went against these decisions, the LTO defended that these new plates will actually help weed out colorum vehicles, reduce traffic and enforce the law more effectively. It will also help avoid the modus operandi: “tanggal plaka”, carjacking and officers will easily discover those vehicles which are stolen and were transported to another place.

The LTO also announced that even though there were changes in the vehicle plates, the current price will hold, with 450 php for four-wheeled vehicles and 120 php for motorcycles.